The Ripoff

Recently my good buddy Joel had a good meal in a good Greek restaurant called Hermes. He asked the waiter (?or maitre d') for a wine suggestion to go with his meal and was recommended the Amethystos, "Regional Dry Red Wine", Macedonia (Greek Macedonia), 2003 for a pricey $95. He thought the wine was a good foil for the food and went shopping for it at the local SAQ (our wine monopoly). Shocked, he found it for $25 in abundant numbers, so bought quite a few bottles. You could look at this two ways - he got what he considered a good wine for a fair price at the wine store or he got taken to the cleaners at the restaurant. So, Joel being Joel, he called the waiter that had served him at the restaurant and stated he was displeased with the markup of almost 400%; the fool replied "Oh, but it's not available, you won't find it any more in the SAQ, it's worth the markup". Joel immediately told him it was indeed freely available and the next day dropped a bottle off for him as a "gift" to prove it, after stating he would never grace the establishment with his wallet again. And, safe to say, neither will I. I do not appreciate gluttony when it comes to wine list price gouging either. Charge a lot of money for a good meal - that's fair - but don't charge more than double mark-up for the wine. Oh - the wine itself - it's dry, food friendly, and medium-full bodied, quite old world in style. The Verdict: Good. Value : I'd say fair, at $20 would be good, at $95 ridiculous.

CHEERS!!